Germany’s Merz fails to clear hurdle in first round of voting to be next chancellor

Friedrich Merz has been dealt an unprecedented setback as he failed to garner the votes required to be Germany’s chancellor immediately,” Deutsche Welle reports.

He was expected to be the new chancellor of the country by Tuesday noon, but it appears that the swearing-ceremony could be delayed since he failed to secure a majority of the votes to be chancellor this morning.

According to German law, if Merz fails to secure an absolute majority in the first round of voting, a second round is held, Deutsche Welle reported.

The Bundestag then has 14 days to elect another candidate to be chancellor. There is no limit to the number of possible ballots, although an absolute majority is always required.

If this second round of voting also fails to produce a result, the election process enters a third phase in which a new election must take place immediately.

The person who receives the largest number of votes (relative majority) is then elected to be chancellor.

Merz's conservative CDU-CSU bloc won national elections in February but with 28.5% of the vote, it needs at least one partner.

Merz agreed to form a coalition with the Social Democrats, who won just 16.4%.

He garnered 310 votes in favor in a secret ballot, six fewer than the required majority of 316. Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, has 630 members in total.

The coalition of CDU, CSU and SPD have a total of 328 lawmakers.